Crony Capitalism in US Health Care

The US political system has come to depend upon money too much. The US health care industry spends the most on political lobbying among all the 13 industrial sectors in the US economy. The government regulatory agencies at both federal and state levels have been "captured" by the health industry interest groups meaning that the regulatory agencies respond to the interests of the industry but not those of citizens. This book employs a broad theoretical framework of crony capitalism to understand US health care system dysfunction. This framework has not been applied before in any serious manner to understand the shortcomings in the US health care system. Specifically, the book examines the role of seven key players using this framework - politicians/interest groups, pharmaceutical companies, private health insurers, hospitals/hospital networks, physicians, medical device manufacturers, and the American public. Crony capitalism is a destructive force and is rampant in US health care system, causing much waste, inefficiencies, and malaise in the system. Current efforts and initiatives, such as patient-centered medical homes and precision medicine, for improving/reforming the system are of mere academic interest and tantamount to taking aspirin to treat cancer. They do not even pretend to address the root cause of the problem, namely, crony capitalism. Offering prescriptions to fix the U.S. health care system based on a comprehensive diagnosis of the dysfunction, this book will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers, and students in the fields of health care management, public and non-profit management, health policy, administration, and economics, and political science.

Naresh Khatri is Associate Professor in the Department of Health Management and Informatics, School of Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA.

Part One. Explication of the U.S. health care system dysfunction 1. The Nature and Extent of the Problem 2. The Crux of the Problem 3. Medicine without Evidence Part Two. Key Players Contributing to the System Dysfunction 4. Politicians/Interest Groups 5. Pharmaceutical Companies 6. Private Health Insurers 7. Hospitals and Hospital Networks 8. Physicians 9. Medical Device Manufacturers 10. American Public Part Three. How to Fix the U.S. Health Care System Dysfunction 11. Addressing Crony Capitalism, the Root Cause of Dysfunction 12. Health Insurance, Payment, and Pricing Arrangements 13. Well-Informed Citizenry